The eastern expressway, which is a major road in terms of automobile traffic, serves as the principal means for the transport of cargo goods brought in by the ships and boats along the eastern coast of Mumbai.

 

TRADE

The map in front of you shows all the docks, bunders, depots and estates since the commencement of the development of eastern coast. These estates today are heritage structures that house the offices of trade related business along the coast. The map is also the key to navigate this narrative as it relays stories from various parts of the coast.

The first phase of major land reclamation for the building of docks started between 1800 to 1825 in Mumbai that overlapped with cotton trade. Furthermore, the importance of Mumbai port grew considerably after the opening of Suez canal in 1869. Indira dock, princess dock and Victoria docks are three of the main docks along the Eastern Coast. Princess and Victoria docks have been functioning less due to outdated handling equipment. These docks cover a total area of 55 acres today. The map shows each port trading some of the major items like cotton, coal etc. The principal activities carried out in this area are handling of Coal at Haji Bunder, handling of raw fertilizers and liquid bulk at Hay Bunder and ship breaking at Lakri Bunder, Coal Bunder and Powder Works Bunder. Tank Bunder is used for parking small crafts. Besides this, Haji Bunder is earmarked for storage of international Maritime Dangerous Goods(IMDG) class containers.

WATER EDGE

Some of the questions that we were looking at were How are the docks formed? How does the edge condition differ with the different docks? Where can ships and boats dock? Mumbai city is originally formed by multiple islands and reclaimed land composed mostly of mangrove forests and marshland separated by rivers and sea. Since a lot of the land along the upper part of Eastern Coast is reclaimed land, it accounts for a very interesting water edge where at places the difference is very distinct due to man-made walls that act as piers and on the other side the mangroves, accumulated silt and erstwhile wetlands form a very fluid transition from the built to the water.

 

SETTLEMENTS

 

With the decline of industrialization in Mumbai the port lands that were meant

for related activities fell into disuse. The properties on these lands soon slipped into being used for unrelated small and medium sized commercial activities, including activities of the unorganized sector. This includes many of the warehouses which were built to house goods from the port, like cotton, which are now vacant. A number of unregulated small-scale industries like ship-breaking, marine repairs, copper and aluminum turnings have sprung up in some places and also have informal scrap markets for iron and steel. The rise of informal sector commercial and industrial activities in the port lands was accompanied by the growth of slums on vacant plots whose inhabitants provide the labor force for such activities. Most of these settlements are raised on stilts, since these were initially active docks and hence have muddy waters as soil and the ladder then becomes an essential part of everyday life. You can read some of the stories narrated by the inhabitants of these settlements from the concept board.

 

CONSTRUCTION OF PORTS

 

Coming to the technicalities related to the ports and docks we will now look at its construction.

The construction of port is done on very specific sites which are chosen based on the following four points :

 

Oceanography:

The tides in the Mumbai region are of the semi-diurnal type i.e. characterized by occurrence of two High and two Low Waters every day. There is a marked inequality in the levels of the two low waters in a day.

The significant waves i.e. the long period waves generated by deep sea storms arise just before and during monsoon from south-west and even they are substantially attenuated by the time they reach the berthing facilities in the harbor.

As the Mumbai harbor is sheltered, no significant wave climate exists within the harbor area. The wave height reaches a maximum of 1.5 m under normal conditions with wave period ranging from 6 to 10 s as shown in the diagrams below.

 

Availability of Natural Draft:

 

Different ships have different drafts as per their cargo carrying capacity and size . Deepest drafts are in the range of 25 meters . So the deeper the depth of water available near the berth , the better the capacity to hold larger ships . Otherwise , dredging needs to be done to increase the depth under water in the ship approach area and the berth which brings a huge financial drain.

 

Natural Shelter from sea waves:

Many ports that are built are naturally protected from high sea swells and waves by some island or mountain. Also, breakwaters are built to reduce the intensity of wave action. These are usually made out of rock and concrete and are of different types. In Mumbai, these can be seen near marine drive and are also called tetrapods.

Infrastructure

 

Ports thrive only when related infrastructure like roads, railways , electricity , presence of cities nearby etc. are in place . This rules out many of the coastal areas where there is no infrastructure as such. Mumbai, being a coastal city, capital of the state and one of the major metropolises in the country provides for ideal conditions for being a prominent coastal stronghold for trade and travel.

 

BUNDERS AND TYPES OF DOCKS

 

Bunders are open wharves and basins that have extensive facilities for the working and storage of many different types of cargo.

A dry dock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, and repair of ships, boats, and other watercraft. Some examples of dry docks are Hughes dry dock, Alexandra dock, Mazgaon dock. You can locate these in the key map.

There are two types of dry docks namely Graving Dock and Floating Dock.

 

As seen in the section a graving dock is a narrow basin, usually made of earthen beams and concrete, closed by gates or by a caisson. A vessel is floated in with the gates open, then the gates are closed and the water is pumped out, leaving the craft supported on blocks. The keel blocks as well as the bilge block are placed on the floor of the dock in accordance with the "docking plan" of the ship. Routine use of dry docks is for the "graving" i.e. the cleaning, removal of barnacles and rust, and re-painting of ships' hulls.

Ex. Indira Dock, Mazgaon dock.

 

The floating dock is the second type of dry dock, which is a type of pontoon for dry docking ships, possessing floodable buoyancy chambers and a "U"-shaped cross-section. The walls are used to give the dry dock stability when the floor or deck is below the surface of the water. When valves are opened, the chambers fill with water, causing the dry dock to float lower in the water. The deck becomes submerged and this allows a ship to be moved into position inside. When the water is pumped out of the chambers, the dry dock rises, and the ship is lifted out of the water on the rising deck, allowing work to proceed on the ship's hull. Floating docks are portable structures supported on a concrete or iron framework as observed in the collage.

 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

The proposed construction of the Fifth Oil Berth is planned in the Mumbai Harbor near the Jawahar Dweep Island. Of the four oil handling berths at Jawahar Dweep (JD) JD4 is the only berth which can handle larger vessels of Displacement Tonnage 125,000 T.D5 is planned as an eventual replacement of JD4.

The cargo to be handled at proposed Fifth Oil Berth shall be only in liquid form and is only handled/transported through pipeline.

The Mumbai port is a multipurpose major port capable of handling various types of cargo such as break bulk, dry bulk, liquid bulk and container goods but in recent times its activity has decreased greatly.

 

The relatively smaller part of port lands that is open and not leased, is also not readily available for development mainly because it is encroached upon by informal settlements such as slums and other micro commercial activities, or is available in small parcels not amenable to any meaningful development.

The main parameters of the vision for Mumbai's port land redevelopment are to re imagine Mumbai’s eastern waterfront as being “Open, Connected and Green”

“Open” for new public uses including recreation, culture, tourism and community amenities.

“Connected” through multiple choices of pedestrian, cycle, metro, rail, buses, water transit and road connectivity.” Green” with environmentally sustainable land uses and an eco-sensitive built environment.